Chapter 290 - Frustration (Patreon)

Zeke dashed through the cavern, pushing his speed to the limit as he pursued his quarry. Even so, the stubborn, little bastard remained just out of his reach. With a grunt, Zeke redoubled his efforts, but in this case, it was to no avail. As much as he wished he could exceed his limiters via sheer willpower, the world just didn’t work that way. No matter how hard he pushed, he couldn’t surpass the parameters of his own body, of his stats.

Until that moment, everything had always seemed so nebulous, as if he only needed determination to break through the limits of his potential. And in a lot of ways, that had always been the case. He still hadn’t found the upper end of his strength. But agility and dexterity – the components of speed – were a different story altogether.

Zeke had never counted swiftness as one of his key attributes. Certainly, he could hold his own, but when confronted with a creature who focused on agility, he was found wanting. Perhaps things would have been easier if he could have simply killed the little monster, but that wasn’t his goal. Instead, he wanted to capture it.

After all, he needed a test subject.

However, if he kept going as he was going, there was almost no chance he would ever catch the monster. Even as Zeke sprinted behind the creature – a level twenty-nine kobold ranger, according to [Inspect] – he wracked his brains trying to figure out a solution.  And he came up empty. Not because he couldn’t kill the thing. One well-aimed chunk of blood mithril ore would have been enough to splatter the little monster across the cavern wall. But the time for that strategy had long since passed; hitting trying to hit it now was a fool’s errand. Aiming a chunk of rock at such a quick creature was already difficult enough, but doing so while sprinting through the caves was nearly impossible unless he got inordinately lucky.

Not much chance of that.

Not for the first time, Zeke considered just letting the little monster go. But there were two problems with that. First, he still needed his guinea pig, and given the dearth of monsters in the general area, he didn’t think he’d soon get another chance to find one. After finishing the rest of the golems off – and gaining another level – Zeke had been raring to find more monsters to hunt. However, the other area around the ruined dwarven city was completely devoid of monstrous life, suggesting that the nearly indestructible golems had either killed or scared off any competitors.

The result was that Zeke had been forced to trek for miles before he’d even seen signs of life, and given that the little ranger was obviously a scout, Zeke didn’t expect he’d find any others nearby. So, he’d reasoned that he only had one real chance at finding a suitable test subject – unless he went back to the mining camp and dragged one of the slaves down to his tower.

Once, he wouldn’t have had to be so picky about where he summoned his home. However, the evolution and continued growth of the structure meant that it needed quite a bit of space. The plaza where it still sat was big enough. So was the Rainbow Forest. However, the tower was now far too large to fit into any of the other caverns Zeke had seen.

His days of setting up wherever he liked were long gone, it seemed.

The last thing he wanted was to drag a live monster for dozens of miles, which meant that he’d already been at the edge of the acceptable range when he’d first stumbled upon the kobold ranger. Now, after half an hour of sprinting through the tunnels, he was well past that.

But Zeke didn’t really have it in him to give up, so he gritted his teeth and continued on. Thankfully, he had no issues with stamina – he could keep going for hours, especially in a place with such dense earth mana to fuel [Metallurgical Repair].

Over the past few weeks, he’d grown intimately familiar with the skill, and in that time, he’d made a few shocking discoveries. First, he’d learned that the skill’s level of power wasn’t static. When he used it to syphon energy from the earth spirits that drove the golems, it was extraordinarily potent, enough so that he could rebuild his body in seconds. Otherwise, his strategy never would have worked. However, when he dragged the mana from the ground itself, it took far longer to heal his wounds.

And Zeke suspected it would get much worse outside of the mountain, which seemed to be extremely rich in earth mana. Not surprising, given how far underground he was. Would the skill still work if he tried to use it on a boat? Perhaps high in the air? What would happen if he stumbled upon an area rich in some other type of mana? Would there still be earth mana in there? Or would it be pushed out? Zeke had no idea, and in his current circumstances, he lacked the means to truly investigate the questions.

But for now, at least he could rest easy knowing that his skill was extremely potent within the caves, tunnels, and mines beneath the dwarven city.

The second thing Zeke had discovered wasn’t really new. For a while, he’d known that he had some control over the expression of his skills – a fact he’d learned just before falling into the demon realm. Back then, he’d forced his skill, [Unleash Momentum], to transform from a circular explosion of force and into a straight line. He’d needed his martial path to do so, but he’d done it nonetheless. Since then, he’d often utilized that strategy, but only with that particular skill.

Zeke’s ascension to the Eternal Realm had changed things, though. Before going on his crusade against the golems, the variance in his skills was minute and instinctual. However, he’d soon learned that he could influence the form of his skills to much greater effect. Certainly, he could never vary the nature of the skills; the foundation of their effects would always remain the same without direct intervention like runecrafting or evolution, but things like intensity and shape were well within the locus of his control.

For instance, as Zeke sprinted through the caverns, he used [Metallurgical Repair] to drag a tiny tendril of earth mana into his body, keeping him fresh. It would be useless for healing, but for staving off fatigue, it was perfect. By contrast, he could also flare the skill and pull a veritable flood of energy into his body, like he did while fighting the golems.

And Zeke felt certain that this was only the beginning. Eventually, he would discover new ways to use the skill. His other skills were less developed, but that was because he’d not focused on them quite as intensely. Soon, though, Zeke would learn how to manipulate them as well. He only needed time.

That seemed to be the guiding force in this new realm. Not only did Zeke need to find time to familiarize himself with the ins and outs of his skills, but he also needed to gain levels, work on his runecrafting, and continue working toward completing his quests. When he’d chosen {Arcane Colossus} as his class, Zeke had known that he was in for a lot of work. After all, he’d studied the underlying runes of his skills enough to know just how complicated building his own skills would be.  However, he hadn’t expected so many other demands on his time.

He knew it would only grow more difficult, too, which made him long for the days when he could progress just by smashing things with his club-like mace.

Of course, he could still do that.  And he would, too. But he needed to branch out. He had to evolve. Otherwise, Zeke suspected that he would never reach his potential – a necessity if he was ever going to ascend to the next realm. That was a far-off goal, though. Even if it only took him the same amount of time to progress through the Eternal Realm as it had for him to ascend from the Mortal Realm, he was looking at a labor of years. Something told him that it would take much longer to reach the point where he could ascend from the Eternal to the Ethereal Realm.

But those were problems for another day. For now, he had a lizard-person to catch.

The monster itself seemed almost laughably weak. Certainly, it was more powerful than the run-of-the-mill kobolds he’d first encountered within the mines. It still had the same natural weapons, too, though it was also equipped with a bow it had yet to bring to bear. However, at only four-feet tall, it wasn’t much bigger than the generic kobolds.

What it lacked in size and power, it made up for in sheer agility, though – which was Zeke’s well-documented problem. He was quick enough to keep the thing from leaving him behind, but not fast enough to catch up – which meant that something needed to change, and soon. Otherwise, he’d end up getting led into an ambush – or worse, into one of the yet unseen kobold settlements.

They were out there, according to Jasper, but they were well-hidden and deep enough underground that the dwarves had deemed their extermination to be more trouble than it was worth. It was easier to just defend against them on the rare occasions when they made a nuisance of themselves.

For the kobolds’ part, they tended to mostly keep to themselves, save for a few infrequent raids by the weaker members of their species.

But if Zeke happened to stumble upon one of the settlements, he knew he’d be in trouble. Even encountering more than a handful of legionnaires would spell certain doom, and he wasn’t so naïve as to think those hulking lizard-people were the strongest among the kobolds. Surely, there were leaders and more powerful warriors.

No – Zeke couldn’t allow himself to be led into that kind of danger. Nor was he comfortable just letting the monster escape, either. If he did, what was to keep it from returning and tracking him through the tunnels, only with a few extra kobolds along for the ride?

All of this placed Zeke directly between a rock and a hard place. He wanted to capture the monster. But failing that, he needed to ensure that it died.

So, he wracked his brain, trying to figure out a strategy that might accomplish his goal. But he couldn’t think of anything that didn’t come with considerable risk.

Suddenly, something hit Zeke in the side, sending him crashing into the tunnel wall with enough force to shatter stone. Cracks spread from the point of impact, and a cascade of pebbles and dust rained down on him. But though the collision rattled him, it wasn’t nearly powerful enough to do any significant damage. In fact, the most prevalent emotion skittering through Zeke’s mind was annoyance as he saw the kobold ranger disappear around a curve in the tunnel. Even that small of a delay was enough that Zeke knew he’d never find the little monster again.

As Zeke pushed himself out of the small crater he’d made in the wall, he ground his teeth in frustration. He’d been chasing the small kobold for more than an hour, and losing his quarry had definitely soured his already poor mood.

It only took Zeke an instant to realize that, aside from the annoyance of failure, he hadn’t really lost anything at all. Instead, a new test subject had served itself up to him. Sure, it wasn’t ideal – especially considering he had no notion of how strong his attacker was – but he’d have to take whatever he could get.

Tearing himself from the wall caused another cascade of pebbles as Zeke searched for his attacker. He didn’t have to look far, because the moment he shook himself free, he was assaulted by a thick, black rope of pure muscle that latched onto him. Before he could respond, another dozen tendrils came at him, wrapping themselves around his body.

Then, they started to squeeze.

Even as his bones creaked under the pressure, Zeke couldn’t move. More and more tentacles erupted from the nearby shadows, snaking around him like dozens of pitch black boa constrictors, each one as big around as his thigh and strong enough pin his arms to his torso.

That was when Zeke saw the other end of those tendrils, and it was all he could do to stifle a scream. He had faced some terrifying monsters since being reborn back in those troll caves, but nothing came close to the fear he felt while looking upon that gaping maw. Bigger around than Zeke’s waist, the opening looked like a portal to some nightmare abyss. Teeth, sharp and longer than his fingers, ringed what Zeke belatedly realized was the creature’s mouth – which wouldn’t have been so bad if they weren’t moving like the teeth of a chainsaw.

Zeke was durable enough, but he suspected that, if he were to find himself on the wrong end of those teeth, it wouldn’t be long before he was ripped to shreds. And while he might survive via copious use of [Metallurgical Repair], he wasn’t certain that would be the case. After all, when he’d rebuilt himself over and over again while draining the earth spirits, such a strategy was only possible because of the potent energy they held. The earth mana flowing through the cave was strong, but he didn’t expect it would be nearly enough to mimic that feat.

So, when those incredibly strong tendrils started pulling him forward, Zeke couldn’t keep a sense of panic from rising in his chest. He tried to resist, but with all those tentacles wrapped around him, he couldn’t bring his full strength to bear. Inch by inch, the owner of that maw reeled him in. He fought back, but it was no use.

As the monster loomed over him, Zeke couldn’t help but be reminded of the wall creepers he’d fought back in the troll caves. However, instead of being a chimp mashed up with an octopus, this new creature was a creation out of nightmare. Belatedly, Zeke used [Inspect]:

Abyssal Maw – Level 41

Knowing its name didn’t provide the comfort Zeke might have hoped for. If anything, it made the situation worse.